TOMMY GABRINI 2: A PLACE IN HIS HEART Read online

  But he and Kelli went way back, back in the day when she was a gorgeous, aspiring model, and he was a cop. Yet now, when she opened the door, her beautiful eyes puffy and red, her dark brown skin ashy from all of the dried tears, she looked like a shell of the woman she used to be.

  She looked at Tommy, and Tommy looked at her, and then she walked away from the opened front door.

  Tommy hesitated. He really didn’t need any more drama this morning, but he didn’t change course and come this way for nothing. He walked into the house, closing the door behind him.

  As he entered the home, Kelli was sitting on the leather couch in her spacious living room, her feet flat to the floor. She wore a long t-shirt that dropped down just above the knees on her shapely legs, and she fidgeted with a wad of tissue that was almost wet to shreds. Tommy, with his hands in the pants pockets of his expensive suit jiggling around change, walked slowly up to her and stood there, looking down at her. Then he walked over to the powder room, grabbed a washcloth and wet it, and then walked back over to her. He lifted her chin and began to wipe the dried tears from her beautiful dark face. Fresh tears began to appear in her eyes.

  “What am I going to do without you, Tommy?” she asked him.

  “Exactly what you’ve been doing without me all of these months,” he said as he wiped, a stern look on his own face. He wasn’t going to lead her on. He had to settle this now.

  “But I can’t make it without you. If you get married, you’ll never be back in my life. What am I going to do without you?”

  “You’re going to survive. And thrive. Just as you’ve always done. I’ve only been a small part of that life.”

  “But it’s the part I most need right now! I always knew I’d have you to turn to. I always knew you’d be by my side when nobody else cared. I knew I could depend on you, Tommy. How could you break my heart like this?”

  Tommy knew she was exaggerating. She probably knew it too. But fear of loneliness, fear of rejection, fear of being left behind just when she was transitioning out of her youth could take a perfectly secure person like Kelli and plunge her into insecurity and doubt.

  “I’m not breaking your heart.”

  “Yes, you are! I was next in line after Shanks. It was supposed to be me.”

  Tommy frowned. This wasn’t the first time he’d heard about this imaginary line and how other females in his past thought they were next up too. “What line?” he asked Kelli. “There is no line and there never was a line. We were in a non-committed relationship, Kell. Period.”

  “Non-committed to you. I was committed.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it. You played the field more than I did. Now you admit that.”

  “That still doesn’t mean you weren’t my number one. Because you were. You still are.”

  Tommy continued to hold her chin. “Listen to me, Kell,” he said.

  But she was shaking her head. “I always knew you would be there for me. You’re my best friend, Tommy.”

  Even fresher tears were now dropping freely from her eyes. She was an emotional wreck, and it concerned him. He lifted her chin even higher. “Kell, I want you to look at me and listen to me.” Although she looked up at him, with her eyes pooled with distress, he doubted if she was fully listening. “You’re too strong a lady to behave like this. You hear me? You’re better than this, Kell. Now you need to cut this shit out and pull it together. Because this playing the victim isn’t helping you. This isn’t helping anything.”

  She still looked at him as if she was puzzled by the view, and he knew, right then and there, that there was no getting through to her. He removed his hand from her. “You’re going to be all right, Kell,” was all he could manage to say.

  “But I’m not all right,” she replied. “That’s what I’m afraid of. I’m not all right. It’s too much, Tommy. When Jilly phoned and told me the news---”

  “Jilly?”

  Kelli nodded. Tommy frowned. Jilly, unfortunately, knew a lot of the women he used to fool around with, since they all ran in the same social circles, and she was probably phoning each one of them even as he stood in front of Kelli. But although Tommy didn’t subscribe to Sal’s belief that all of those women would go ballistic when they heard the news, he wasn’t as firm as he had earlier been. Especially if Kelli was any indication. He would have never expected Kelli to behave like this. She liked drama, but she never liked weakness.

  “When Jilly told me the news,” she went on, “I thought somebody was playing a cruel joke on me. It couldn’t be true. I just knew it couldn’t be true. That’s why I phoned you. I knew you would never do that to me. Not with some female you just met.”

  “I didn’t just meet her.”

  “Compared to me you have! And it all became too much. It’s too much for one person to have to bear!”

  Tommy stared at her. More was at work than just his engagement to Grace. Much more. “What’s really going on, Kell?” he asked her.

  Kelli didn’t respond at first. Then she shook her head, covered her face with her hand, and then removed her hands. Her entire face looked anguished. “My agent dumped me. After all these years she dumped me. She said I wasn’t cost effective enough anymore. Cost effective, that’s how she put it. Which was code for I’m too old.”

  Tommy knelt down in front of her and took her hands. Neither one of them were spring chickens anymore. Both of them were pushing forty hard. “I’m sorry, Kell,” he said, refusing to sugarcoat her professional plight.

  “Then I hear about you and . . .” She looked at him. “We’ve been friends for so long, Tommy. I don’t want to lose you. We will at least remain friends. Won’t we?”

  An uncomfortable grimace crossed Tommy’s face. He never enjoyed playing games. Even as a kid he despised game playing. Kelli was never any friend of his, and they both knew it. He’d never spent a full hour in her presence without fucking her brains out. That, in truth, was the sum and substance of their entire relationship. They fucked. And went on with their lives. Period. The idea that they were somehow great buddies who shared more than sex would not be true. And he couldn’t, even to appease her, pretend that it was true.

  “No,” he said. “We can’t remain as we were, if that’s what you’re asking. Out of respect for my fiancée, out of respect for you for crying out loud, the answer is no.”

  Instead of Kelli objecting, or going on about how devastated she was, she said nothing. She just stared at him.

  Tommy, too, felt that there was nothing more to be said. He felt he had made himself clear enough. So he was just about to stand to leave.

  Kelli, however, immediately slung off her t-shirt, revealing her long, lithe naked brown body, and she opened her legs as wide as they could go. It was her body, she knew, that kept him around all these years, and she decided to play to her strength.

  “Fuck it again, Tommy,” she said as her legs parted. “Lick it and fuck it again.”

  Although Tommy glimpsed her juicy dark folds, and remembered just how wonderful it did feel to lick and fuck her there, he frowned and stood up. “Kell,” he said in a distressed tone as he stood.

  “Tommy do me,” she pleaded. “Just one last time.” She wanted to feel him inside of her again. She was convinced that if he only had her again, he’d change his mind.

  But Tommy wasn’t trying to change anything. He was leaving.

  “Tommy!” she yelled as she hurried behind him.

  She grabbed him from the back and attempted to stop his progression, but he slung around and grabbed her by the arms, her breasts bouncing from his grab.

  “You listen to me,” he said, purposely making her squirm by squeezing her arms too tight. “It’s over. You hear me? It’s over. You can pull every trick you can think up, and it’ll still be over between us. Now we can end this with our dignity intact, you can go on with your life and I can go on with mine. Or we can end it bitterly and divisively. The choice is yours.”

  Kelli stared at Tommy a mo
ment longer, stunned that her body failed her this time, convinced that he didn’t bite simply because he viewed her as too old to bother with now. And she snatched away from him. Every man she’d ever known had hurt her. Every man. And now Tommy, who she thought was an exception, was no exception at all.

  He hurt her too.

  Tommy saw what he thought was hatred in her eyes, and he was sorry that it had to come to this. But what did she expect? He told her going in that there would be nothing more to their relationship than occasional sex, and she had agreed. She wholeheartedly agreed. She was young and beautiful and had her pick of the litter back then. She didn’t want him beyond sex either. Those were the rules. Her rules especially. Now she wanted to rewrite the rules?

  He left. He walked out of her home, and her life, without looking back.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Sal Gabrini sat behind his desk in his upstairs office at Diamante’s. It was lunchtime, and the crowd in the upscale restaurant was lively. Tommy and Sal owned two restaurants in their business conglomerate: the high dollar Diamante’s, and their more mainstream Taste of Southern restaurant. Both were turning huge profits and continued to enjoy surging popularity, but Diamante’s continued to have staff issues that constantly caused Sal to leave his office at the Gabrini Corporation, and pay the restaurant a visit.

  Like today. Yet another Front of House manager quit on them, and the chef, who was too brilliant to fire and he knew it, was demanding that he select the next one. Not Sal. Not Tommy. He, the chef, wanted to select their next manager. But Sal refused to relinquish that kind of control to anyone, especially some arrogant-ass cook, and the battle was joined.

  Knocks were heard on his office door.

  “What?” Sal yelled out.

  The door was opened by the assistant manager, who had also put in word that he wanted to be considered for the top spot. Sal already told him he could forget that.

  “Excuse me, sir,” the assistant said, “but that woman’s here.”

  Sal frowned. “What woman’s here?”

  “That black girl. Tommy’s old lady.”

  Sal glared at his assistant manager, a man he’d known for years. “You thought it necessary to mention her race, did you?”

  “You said you couldn’t figure out what woman I meant. So I described her. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Just get your ass back downstairs and leave her alone.”

  “I wasn’t bothering her.”

  “Just go,” Sal ordered and the assistant, angry, left.

  Sal exhaled, tossed aside the stack of resumes they had on file from the last time they had to hire a manager, and then he stood, grabbed his suit coat, and headed downstairs.

  Grace had already been seated. Sal frowned, however, when he saw where.

  “Who put you here?” he asked her as soon as he walked up to her.

  “Well hello, Sal,” Grace said with a smile. Sal reached over and hugged and kissed her.

  “Hey, babe. You okay?”

  “I’m good.”

  “Who put you here?”

  “Put me where?”

  “Here. By the bathrooms. Point that fucker out.”

  “Sal,” Grace said, taking his wrist in her hand, “look around at your restaurant. Do you see an empty table anywhere else?”

  Sal looked around. She was right. The place was jammed packed.

  “I’m grateful they had this available,” Grace added.

  “They could have put you in Tommy’s room.”

  “They couldn’t. They already have a party of thirty in there now. The young man said the former manager had approved it. He was really very nice.”

  Sal exhaled, and continued to look around. “But still. Tommy will kill me if he knows I let you sit by the bathrooms. He’ll have my balls up my ass if he found out about this.”

  Grace laughed. “Then we can’t let him find out about it. Balls in butts, I heard, can be quite painful.”

  Sal chuckled. He always did like Grace.

  “Sit down, Sal,” she said. “I’m fine.”

  Sal sat down across from her. “Waiting on somebody?” he asked her.

  “Yes, actually. A friend. Jamie.”

  “Oh, yeah, the gay guy.”

  “He’s gay, yes.”

  Sal leaned forward. “So how’s it going? As the new head of Trammel?”

  “It’s emotional exhausting right now, to be honest with you. There’s so much that needs to change. I’m really going to have to roll up my sleeves and get this train back on track. Tommy would expect nothing less from me, and I’m not going to let him down.”

  Early on, Sal used to be a little jealous of Grace’s relationship with Tommy. It was as if she was supplanting him as the number one person in Tommy’s life. But over time he grew to appreciate her position. She kept Tommy upbeat and happy in ways no other woman had ever managed to do for his sometimes sullen brother. And that unbridled joy was what always seemed to be missing from Tommy’s life. Sal loved him so much that anybody who was able to put a smile on his brother’s face the way Grace was able to do it, was especially cool with him.

  “How’s Jillian taking your new role?”

  Grace shook her head. “I haven’t seen her since the board meeting this morning. But she’s upset, that’s for sure.”

  “Watch that bitch,” Sal warned. “Excuse my French, but watch her. She’s a backstabber.”

  Grace hadn’t heard that terminology for a while. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I trust her as far as I can throw her.”

  “And that’s a big bitch,” Sal said, and they both laughed.

  “Not really, but I get your point,” Grace added.

  When Jamie was escorted back, Sal stood from the table.

  “Hey, girl,” Jamie said as he and Grace hugged and kissed.

  “You remember Sal, don’t you?” Grace asked.

  “Uh-hun,” Jamie said with a sudden unfriendly chill in his delivery. It was obvious that he was no fan of Sal’s.

  Jamie wasn’t exactly Sal’s favorite person either. “Nice seeing you again,” Sal said.

  “Likewise,” Jamie replied, sitting down.

  “Talk to you later, Grace,” Sal said and left.

  Jamie shook his head as he placed his purse on the side of the table by Grace’s. “I don’t know how you can stand that little racist.”

  “He’s not a racist, Jamie.”

  “Yeah, right. He act like he can’t stand the sight of black people. The only reason he tolerates you is because of Tommy. He know Tommy will kick his ass if he doesn’t treat you right. But me, no thanks. I can’t stand his ass.”

  Grace had been through it a hundred times with Jamie over Sal’s purported racism. Sal had his ways, that was for sure, and she could see how his sometimes blunt style could be misinterpreted, but to call the man a racist, she felt, was a bit much. She told Jamie so countless times. But Jamie was too convinced.

  “So,” Jamie said, grabbing her left hand. “Let me see it.”

  When he saw the big diamond ring on her finger, he screeched. “Oh. My. Goodness! This is so beautiful, Gracie. And look at that diamond. It’s massive. This thing had to cost some serious coins. That man has to love you in a mighty way to put something like this on it. But that’s why I like Tommy. That man’s got class, you hear me? That man has style.”

  “I agree,” Grace said with a smile, and they both laughed.

  “And I heard about him giving you Trammel,” Jamie said. “You didn’t mention that part when you invited me to lunch.”

  “Who told you? Let me guess. Nayla?”

  “You know it, child,” Jamie said as the waitress arrived to take their drink orders. When she left, he continued talking. “She couldn’t wait to tell the news. She’s so jealous I could smell it through the phone.”

  “I know.”

  “Well I’m glad you know that.”

  “Please. Nobody has to tell me about Nayla Santiago. I know her. She alread
y put in her request for a promotion.”

  Jamie laughed. “A promotion? Her ass can barely do the job she’s already doing, and she’s talking about a promotion?”

  “That’s what she said.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I said no,” Grace said and Jamie laughed. “I’m not thinking about Nay right now. She’s just being greedy, trying to get whatever she can get while she thinks the getting’s good. She’ll settle down.”

  “I don’t know, girl. She might have some tricks up her sleeves.”

  “Oh, I know she will,” Grace assured him. “I told you I know Nayla. She used to be really sweet and kind, you know? I used to trust her with my life. But now, and especially since I’ve been with Tommy, she’s changed so much. She’s bitter and jealous and complain about everything and everybody. I don’t hardly recognize her sometimes. It’s sad. She’s been my friend for so long that I just hate how much we’ve grown apart.”

  “That’s the problem with NayNay,” Jamie said. “You guys haven’t grown apart. You’ve grown and she stayed still. Instead of working hard to get out of the logistics department and into top management, she chose to hang around and sleep around and let other people do her work for her. Now she sees you as her meal ticket. Now she figure, by virtue of your friendship with her alone, that you owe her. No thanks. Friends like that can destroy people. I would get rid of her ass, and fast.”

  But Grace knew that was an impossibility. “I can’t kick her to curb and take away her livelihood just because of how I think she’s going to respond. I’ll keep an eye on her, that’s for damn sure, and make sure she’s doing the work she’s supposed to do. But I can’t just dump her like that. That wouldn’t be fair.”

  Jamie understood what she meant. That was why he loved Grace. She didn’t go along with the crowd. She didn’t react based on other people’s conclusions. “That’s why you’re the boss now,” he said.

  “As far as I’m concerned she has a clean slate at Trammel right now,” Grace continued. “If she does the right thing, and get with the program, she’ll move up that ladder. I’ll personally see to it. But if she keeps bitching and moaning about everything, and if she tries to obstruct our progress, then I’ll have no choice but to get rid of her. But just as she’ll have to earn the right to be promoted, she’ll also have to earn the right to be fired. I don’t like her little shitty comments, no, but they haven’t risen to that level where I would fire her yet. Not yet. But stay tuned,” Grace added with a smile that even Jamie could see didn’t reach her tired eyes.